Maintenance is work that you get done at a certain mileage in order to prevent breakdowns. Anything that wears out routinely in your car is considered maintenance. some examples are:

Save money by doing maintenance. Maintenance can seem expensive, but compared to what will break without it, maintenance is cheap. For instance, a timing belt on a 1.8t engine is about $925.00, including all the timing belt parts and a metal water pump. If you don't do the maintenance and you allow the belt to break, the repair is about $3500.00 because the valves will be bent and the cylinder head must be removed for repairs. Your cylinder head will require lots of expensive parts and machine work. But the price of the repair does include a new timing belt and water pump.

Another example of maintenance saving money - If you let your tires go mostly bald, your car can more easily hydroplane on a wet road. The deeper the tread on your tires, the deeper the water you can drive through without hydroplaning. If you run off the road in the rain at highway speeds, you could total your car, you could destroy someone else's property, you could be injured or even killed. A few hundred dollars in tires could save you untold damage, expense, and misery. We always recommend and sell tires with a AA traction rating for the safety of our customers.

We have found that some customers will only spend money on their car if it's broken down or on fire! These drivers are setting themselves up for a very frustrating experience because without maintenance any car will break down and it will be much more expensive.

Everyone has a car payment!

Paid off? Even if your car is paid off and you own it outright, you still have a car payment. I'll explain what I mean. When you drive a car, stuff wears out. Even if you don't drive the car at all, things break or gum up. Expenses are generated either way. It's a no-win situation, unless you understand certain things. The average car payment in the USA is about $450 per month. If you break the cost of maintenance and repairs into the equivalent of a car payment, we can keep your VW or Audi like new for between 3 and 6 car payments per year, depending on how fancy your car is. A 2.0L VW with a manual transmission and manual windows can be kept like new for about 3 car payments per year ($450 x 3), while a turbo Audi with an automatic and power everything would be closer to 6 payments a year. To make this work, open a seperate bank account, deposit the money as if you're making a car payment and use it when your car needs something. You should be able to buy tires, get tune ups, make repairs, repaint, even have money for deductibles out of that money.

Not everything has to be a surprise with your car.

Our goal is to keep your VW driving like new for as long as you drive it. Having a reasonable budget for your car allows us to do that. Sure, your car may need some repairs along the way to a half-million miles, but when you have the money put away you don't have to panic over some common repairs on a high-mileage car. Door latches, alternator, fusebox, batteries, fuel pump, window regulators, and suspension bushings are all common repairs a VW driver could expect to need on the way to 500K. We keep most of these parts in stock so we can turn the repairs quickly. If you do the repairs when needed, the car will stay dependable and drive like new. If you put some money away before you need the repairs, they won't be such a shock and you won't be stressed out.